


Across the Realms

by KataraAlchemist



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Dimension, Blood and Injury, Demon Realm, M/M, Major Character Injury, Seperation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-21 22:50:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/905880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KataraAlchemist/pseuds/KataraAlchemist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's happened before, a shadowhunter moved wrong or just didn't move fast enough, and the next moment they were gone. Sucked into another realm. And they never came home, not alive or in one piece anyhow. Now it is happening again, Alec is gone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Date Night

“I’ve missed date night.” I grinned, reaching out and snagging Alec with my arm to pull him closer.

He smiled a little and settled into my side as we walked, “I have to. Well. I’ve missed it when it’s successful.” I felt his elbow jab playfully into my side.

“Hey, I didn’t know you’d be allergic to those flowers! Are you going to hold that date against me forever?”

“Potentially. I mean, it was our first date.”

“Personally, I don’t count that as our first date. I count that little Italian Restaurant downtown as our first date because that was the first time we went out after you came out to your parents.”

“And because you didn’t nearly kill me with plant life that time.”

“I just can’t win, can I?” I threw my arms up dramatically, scattering a group of pigeons from a near by ledge.

“Not on this.”

“So stubborn.” I poked him in the side and laughed as he jumped nearly off of the sidewalk and into the street. “You’re so sensitive.”

“I’m a demon hunter. Being ‘sensitive’ keeps me alive.”

“You’re not that sensitive in bed.” I smirked. “Well, not that kind of sensitive.”

“Magnus!” His eyes darted up and down the street as his face burned red.

“Relax. I doubt the homeless man on the stoop of 124 is going to spread that minor detail of our sex lives around the whole city.”

“Shut up.” He snapped.

“Hey,” I started. I hadn’t said anything that bad. There was no need to snap at me.

“Magnus, shut up!” Alec was digging in his pockets and a moment later yanked out his sensor, his keys falling to the ground as he did so along with a few assorted coins and a slip of paper.

The sensor was vibrating madly and glowing a faint blue. Alec and I both moved closer and swept our eyes up and down the street as Alec pulled out a blade and named it softly, its faint glow joining that of the sensor.

“It’s got to be close for the sensor to be going off like this…but I don’t see anything.” Alec whispered, still scanning his eyes all over.

“Could it be beneath us?”

“Maybe…” He slid his hand back in his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing a number I couldn’t see. “Jace, There’s something at the corner of 10th and Corrier. My sensor’s going off like crazy but there’s nothing here.” Alec paused, “Yeah. I’ll wait.” The phone clicked shut and was slid back into his pocket.

“Golden boy is coming to help? How sweet of him.” Alec just rolled his eyes, haven long given up on getting me to play nice with Jace.

“Why don’t you head home? I’ll meet you there.” Alec offered.

“Right. I’ll just leave my boyfriend with self-sacrifice issues out on an abandoned road to wait for help while his sensor is vibrating so hard he can hardly hold on to it. Sounds brilliant.” I quipped. If Alec actually thought I’d even consider leaving him here, he was an idiot. The boy was a magnet for trouble that couldn’t be left alone as far as I was concerned.

“Fine. Stay then.” Alec huffed and stomped away towards an alley way.

“And he says I’m over dramatic.” I mumbled as I followed him.

Alec walked up and down the alley way, glaring at his sensor like it was capable of suddenly saying something like “whoops, sorry. False alarm. I just decided to be moody for the day because you didn’t feed me.” I had told Henry that they would be much more useful if they talked rather then just buzzed angrily, but had he listened? Of course not. Well…maybe he had and it had resulted in one of his numerous explosions. That was highly probable, given his track record.

His experiments with senors hadn’t been nearly as catastrophic as his ones with portals thought. I could name at least two occasions where Charlot had called for me in the middle of the night because Henry had left some important body part on the other side of his dungeon lab and she had been afraid to call the Silent Brothers for fear he’d be thrown in prison for his experiments or something.

“So, where’s this demon?” The drawl of my least favorite pretty boy asked, pulling me out of my rather amusing memories of the past.

“I have no idea.” Alec said, shaking his sensor angrily.

“Well, yours isn’t broken. Mine’s going off to.” Jace announced, pulling his from his pants to reveal it vibrating just as fervently as Alec’s.

“Bet you enjoyed having that stuffed down there, didn’t you, Angel boy?”

“Why don’t you ask your boyfriend, Bane, his must’ve been in the same place after all.”

“It was in my coat pocket, Jace!” I tried not to laugh when I saw how red Alec was, and wondered if Jace could tell as well in the dim light.

“Sure it was.” Jace smirked, “Now are we going to find this demon or sit here making sexual innuendos about shadow hunter gear the rest of this wonderfully cold night?”

“Find the demon.” Alec grumbled, stomping back out of the alley way.

“I’m telling you, it’s got to be under us.” I re-iterated. “We would’ve seen it by now if it wasn’t.”

As soon as I closed my mouth the ground beneath us pitched up. Jace leaped back, soaring nearly twenty feet and landing gracefully on stable ground. Alec fell and rolled with the momentum, shooting to his feet as soon as he completed the roll. Me? I fell rather ungracefully and did a very poor version of what Alec had done. It was a rather hard move to imitate in three inch heels after all. All three of us watched as the road split open and demons poured out. There had to be at least fifty, and there were multiple types. Everything from large, wolf like demons to scuttling raveners.

“Fall back!” Alec shouted, “We need help, there’s to many.”

Jace though, being as super special as he thought was, charged in anyways. And Alec, being the ever loyal parabati, charged in after him. And me, being the ever loyal boyfriend, called Izzy for backup.

I hung up the phone and took a deep breath, focusing in my magic in preparation to join the fight. As soon as I saw Alec, fighting a demon twice his size with only his one little blade, I ran towards him. I threw a spell to push the demon away and grabbed Alec, pulling him close to me.

“Magnus, let go damnit!”

“Your turn to shut up.” I snapped my fingers, his bow and a quiver of arrows appearing in my hand. I slung the quiver around his shoulders and shoved the bow into his hands before he had the chance to react. “Be careful.” I kissed him quick, then turned back to the fight. As long as Alec had his bow and arrows he’d be okay. That’s what I told myself.

I threw another spell, trying to take out one of the deadliest demons. It was pretty small, about the size of a medium dog, and it resembled something of a porcupine. Each of it’s bristling spines was coated in one of the deadliest types of demon poison, poison that could kill within seconds if you got a high enough dose. The little bastard was quicker then he looked though, and most of my spells missed as it dodged between the cracked pieces of the road. Just as I was about to try again a ribbon of gold shot out and sliced it in half.

“I think you’re losing your touch, Magnus. I remember you being better then this.” I looked over to see Isabelle standing on the sidewalk in a skimpy black dress and thigh high shiny leather boots, her golden whip dangling at her side.

“It’s been a long day, darling.” I grinned. “Nice shoes.”

“Don’t you love them? Simon got them for me.” She smirked.

“Rat boy has fashion sense?”

“How about you two discuss this over America’s Next Top Model tomorrow, and help us kill the rest of this horde, hmm?” Jace shouted from the other side of the street.

“You know when America’s Next Top Model is on, Blondie?”

“Shut it, Bane!” Jace spun and dispatched a ravener that had been trying to sneak up on him.

“You shut it.”

The argument was cut off as a few straggling demons crawled and slithered out of the hole in the ground. I turned my attention to one resembling the offspring of a large wasp and a scorpion. It took two spells, but I managed to send the thing back to whatever dimension it had been summoned from. Before I could even enjoy the victory though I felt something slam into my side and I fell to the ground, smacking the pavement before I had time to catch myself.

I rolled and then froze, trying to force myself to believe that I’d been knocked out and what I was seeing was some horrible figment of my imagination. Alec was standing where I had been, standing ridged. A horn from a demon was protruding through his leg. Jumping up I tried to grab him, to pull him back. As I moved I saw the arrow that had been jammed through its head. My fingers brushed Alec’s sleeve and I caught sight of his blue eyes looking at me in desperation and terror. And then he was gone, sucked into the demon realm with the demon as it died.

He was gone.


	2. The Demon Realm

I spun to find Magnus again, I had to make sure he didn’t get hurt. As soon as I saw him I also saw the demon charging towards him, it’s deadly horn lowered. I didn’t even have time to shout. So I just ran, shoving Magnus out of the way as I pulled an arrow from my quiver and spun to stab it into the demon. I felt the sharp serf tip of the arrow slide between the plated armor of the demon and only registered that its horn had stabbed through my leg when I realized that I couldn’t pull away.

As cliche as it was, everything stopped for a moment. I’d dealt a fatal blow to the demon, it was going to die any second. I was attached to the demon. If it died, I was going with it. Turning I caught sight of Magnus’s face, he looked terrified to as he reached for me. I felt his fingers stir the edge of my sleeve, and then everything went black.

It felt like the sensation of going through a portal, that same sucking and sense of pressure. But it was worse, it felt like I was being crushed. All the air was forced out of my lungs, I could feel my chest collapsing in on itself. And the pain in my leg was incredible, the poison already burning its way through my veins. There were lights spinning all around me, and it smelled like something dead and rotting was being burned. The inability to breath was bringing me closer and closer to unconsciousness, but I tried to fight it.

Just as I reached the point of thinking I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer I slammed into the ground, feeling something break as I hit. I tried to scream in pain, but I started to retch as soon as I inhaled. The air was acidic, inhaling it felt like swallowing fire. Cramming my face into the crook of my elbow I looked around wildly, ignoring the burning in my eyes, there had to be something…something.

I spotted an outcropping of rocks in the distance, surrounding what looked like a small cave. Instinct told me to go to it, even though logically I knew it probably wouldn’t be any better there. My first thought was to try and hop on one leg to the outcropping, but I quickly dropped back to the ground when I saw a horde of demons in the distance. Crawling would be a much better option.

Crawling ended up being more of an awkward, wiggling, dragging motion though. Between my bad leg and trying to keep my arm over my nose and mouth, forward movement was complicated. Breathing was a little easier with my arm over my mouth, even though it still burned a little, which made me think that it was something in the air rather then the air itself that was so painful to inhale.

Eventually I made it to the the cave, which appeared to be much deeper then it seemed like it could be. I hesitated a moment, wondering if there would be demons inside. What did I have to lose though? I rolled myself over the lip of the cave, which was really more of a tunnel I now realized. It looked natural though, not like it had been carved or dug by something which was slightly comforting.

Moving was easier now, the downward slope allowed me to roll onto my back and slide carefully down. As I went the air became cooler and easier to breath. Eventually I pulled out my witchlight, thanking the Angel that it worked. I kept going until I came to flat area. It was so dark that the witchlight only penetrated a few feet into the black. But I was less concerned with my surroundings right now as I was with trying to figure out how bad I was hurt. Now that I could breath without more then a slight discomfort I held my witchlight in between my lips to keep it lit and looked down at my leg, grimacing at how bad the wound looked. The flesh was badly torn and I could see a white glimmer of bone. Thankfully my permanent runes had already stopped the bleeding, and the demon was one who’s poison caused burning sensations and unconsciousness in high enough doses, but never death. I had to find a way to clean the injury though, and set the bone from the look of it. Digging in my pockets I prayed to the Angel I had my stele as well. The Angel apparently wasn’t listening though, as my Stele seemed to be gone. Technically, I could write the runes with my blood but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as effective, especially with demon poison in my veins. I didn’t have much choice though, from the look of things.

Looking around I spotted some sticks a short distance away that would make good splints. With a little effort I made my way to them and leaned against a nearby rock. Taking a deep breath I placed one hand on each side of my leg and quickly jerked the bone back into alignment, a small sound of pain escaping my mouth which was still stuffed with the witchlight. After a few steadying breaths I took off my jacket and tore it into strips, wrapping them around my leg and the sticks to make a splint and a bandage.

“Now what?” I mumbled, dropping the witchlight back into my hand.

Grabbing one of the longer sticks I hoisted myself to my feet, hissing when I bumped my injured leg. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for as I hobbled around the darkness. Mainly, I was hopping for something that would tell me I wasn’t actually in the demon realm like I suspected I was. It wasn’t unheard of for people to get pulled into the demon realm, but it was rare. And none of them had ever been heard from again. One of them had a family who tried to have a warlock summon them back like they would a demon, but all they’d gotten back was an arm. They were never sure if summoning him back had torn his arm off, or if he’d been torn apart by the demons. Either way, it wasn’t a comforting thing to think about.

I stopped suddenly as my witchlight threw its glow over what looked like…well, a campsite. “Hello?” I said after a moment. I inched a bit closer, wary of who or what I might find. But as the light on the campsite grew stronger I realized that it was abandoned. The ramshackle tent was tattered, the fire long cold. A small cup and a little pan were sitting next to the fire pit and a little ways away was what looked like a mundane army backpack from the beginning of the century. I made my way to it and sat down carefully, trying not jostle my leg to much.

Inside the pack were several sets of faded clothes, a pair of boots, some wrapped up packages and a journal. I pulled out the journal and opened it carefully. Inside the front cover was a well loved black and white photograph of a man sitting on a picnic blanket with his wife, both of them holding a little baby with bows in her hair. On the back a date was scrawled, “July 4th 1940.” And beneath that was written “My Girls, Mary and little Elizabeth.”

Carefully I tucked the photo back inside and set the journal back in the pack. I didn’t want to invade his privacy anymore then I already had, even if he was apparently long dead. Making my way back to my feet I moved to examine the tent. It wasn’t as damaged as I thought, it had mearly caved in over the years as the wooden poles rotted. The tarp at least seemed intact. I leaned down as much as I could and looked inside, grimacing at what I saw: a skeleton inside a slightly rotted sleeping bag. I assumed this was the man from the photo.

Letting the tent flap fall back into place I went back to his bag. I found a few pockets I hadn’t looked through before, and in one of them was a lighter. I almost shouted in happiness when it lit. Half an hour of awkward wobbling back and forth to the pile of sticks I’d used before and the fire-pit in the campsite and I had a good sized fire going. I was a little concerned about using up all the oxygen, or choking on smoke, so I dampened one of the shirts that had been torn up already in a near by puddle of what appeared to be water and kept it by the fire in case I needed to put it out.

I leaned against the pack, trying to keep myself awake. As I’d made the fire I’d become more and more drowsy and lethargic. The movements of making the fire had kept me awake, but now that I was sitting still I could feel unconsciousness creeping up on me. I tried to fight it, afraid of what would happen if I slept, but eventually it overtook me and felt my head drop onto the bag as I passed out.


	3. Regrets

“Izzy?” I whispered, looking around me. I wasn’t sure why I was whispering, this was the middle of Central Park after all. I didn’t exactly have to hide or anything.

“Simon.” I heard her off to my left a little and walked until I found her sitting, knees clutched to her chest in a small hallow created by the roots of a tree.

“Iz,” Before I could even sit all the way down she’d launched herself into my arms and buried her head in my shoulder. “Iz, tell me what happened. Did…did you figure something out about Alec?”

Three days ago Clary and I had been sitting on her bed reading our new mangas while Luke and Jocelyn made anniversary plans in the living-room. We were laughing over a mistake the artist had made, one of the girls had six fingers in a panel of the manga, when Luke had come in. His face was grim and his cell was clutched in his hand.

“I just got a call from the pack. Somethings happened to Alec. The details are still sketchy, but…it sounds like he’s been killed.” He’d told us.

Clary had paled so much I was afraid she was going to pass out, but she recovered quickly and demanded to know everything else Luke had been told. All he’d known was that a member of his pack had heard that Alec, Isabelle, Jace and Magnus had been attacked by a horde of demons near Magnus’s flat and that Alec had been nowhere to be found when more shadowhunters had shown up. All the demons were gone, as was Alec, and Jace had been madly scratching runes into the ground and screaming that Alec couldn’t be gone. Clary had jumped up at that and scribbled the rune for a portal on her wall, vanishing to the institute. I’d stood there with Luke, neither of us knowing what to do.

Things had been crazy ever since. It was eventually found out that Alec had most likely been sucked into the demon realm, something you apparently never came back from. I hadn’t heard from Izzy until a day later when she had tumbled into my apartment, make-up smearing her face and alcohol staining her breath. I’d held her until we both fell asleep and she’d been gone in the morning, a note saying she needed to be with her family. Then earlier today she’d called, asking me to meet her in Central Park. And I’d come, without a second thought.

“Did they find something out?” I asked again, gently stroking her hair.

“No.” She said shakily, “I just…I just needed to get out of the Institute. There’s so many people and they’re all asking the same questions over and over and over and I can’t even think anymore.”

“I’m sorry, Iz. You’re always welcome at my place, alright?” What else could I offer? I couldn’t exactly go stay with her, given that I would probably burst into flame or something the second I stepped into the institute.

“Both my brothers are gone. And it’s my fault.” She whispered.

“Izzy, it is not your fault that Alec or Max is gone. You did everything you could to protect both of them.”

“It’s still my fault for not being good enough. I should’ve trained harder, I should’ve…should’ve stuck closer to them,” She rattled off more and more reasons after that, and I let her. I figured it was better to let her get it all out and then try and get her to refute it all herself. I didn’t think it would sink in if I kept saying it wasn’t her fault, but if I got her to talk herself into it it might stick better. I hoped.

 

———~———

 

I let my head thunk against the wall of the shower as I slid down, clutching my arm. Clutching my parabati rune there. It had been burning ever since Alec had vanished. Sometimes it was worse than others, like now. Now it felt like the rune had been written with demon poison. I wasn’t sure if meant he was still alive though, the fact that I was feeling the pain, who knew how the connection worked when each half of the pair was in a different dimension?

“Jace? Are you okay? I heard something thunk…” Clary asked from the other side of the door to the bathroom.

“Ye-yeah.” I took a steadying breath, “I just dropped the shampoo bottle.”

“…Okay.” I heard her soft footsteps pad away, probably to my bed or the window seat.

Clary was the only thing holding me together right now, but I didn’t know how to explain what I was feeling. The parabati connection was something she didn’t understand. She didn’t know what it was like to feel the pain of another person that way, and there was no way to explain it to her so that she would.

Suddenly the pain flared up in my arm again, so much that I gasped and clutched it tighter. The edges had steadily been turning a bright, angry, red over the past three days. I made a point of wearing long sleeves to cover it so I wouldn’t be asked another round of questions. I was sick of all the damn questions. I had lost my brother, my parabati, why couldn’t they all leave me the hell alone?

 

———~———

 

I curled up tighter on my couch, trying not to notice that I wasn’t lying against Alec’s chest like I always did now. It was cozy there, I fit quite well. But Alec wasn’t here anymore. Hadn’t been for three days now. Three days, eight hours, and around twenty minutes. And it was my fault, in a myriad of ways. If I’d been paying better attention he wouldn’t have had to push me out of the way, if I’d gotten up faster I could’ve grabbed him, if, if, if.

“To many fucking ifs.” I growled, chucking a pillow at the wall that nearly hit the Chairmen on his way over the arm chair. I was met with a very undignified hiss and a fluffed tail as he darted out the door.

As soon as Alec had vanished all hell had broken loose. Jace had shouted his name and dove for the spot where he’d been in an apparent attempt to grab him even though he was already gone. Izzy had done nearly the same, but stopped herself short before she smacked into Jace. Jace had started ranting to himself after that, scratching runes into the ground that he apparently thought would help. Izzy just stood there staring at the spot. I didn’t do much different. I was frozen, my hand still slightly stretched out, staring at the cracked pavement. How long it all lasted I wasn’t sure, but eventually two other shadowhunters from another part of the city had shown up. Apparently they’d heard about the demons and had come to check it out. What they must’ve thought when they saw us, a warlock in sparkling pink pants and a blue blazer with his hand stretched to open air, a blonde angel boy scratching runes into the ground so hard his hands were bleeding from dragging against the pavement, and a girl in a skimpy black dress and leather boots, her golden whip hanging limply at her side as she silently cried. They had apparently called Maryse and Robert though, because they showed up next. When they asked what had happened, Izzy had just kept repeating “He’s gone. Alec’s gone.” Jace and I hadn’t said anything, even when asked directly. I didn’t know what to say, and I think Jace was just to panicked to think straight. For once, I couldn’t blame him.

After that my memory was a little vague. Somehow we’d all ended up at the Institute, and the Silent Brothers were there. They talked to me, but I couldn’t remember if I’d responded. The clearest memory of those few hours was looking down at my hands, I’d picked up everything Alec had dropped earlier when he was digging out his sensor. His keys, all the little coins, even the slip of paper. It had been compulsive, but I was glad I had. Somehow those little things seemed important now. They were the last pieces I had of him now that he was gone. And I was sure he was gone. You didn’t get sucked into the demon realm and live. I’d tried not to let myself think that that was what happened at first, but I wasn’t very good at lying to myself about things I knew were true just because I didn’t like them.

Another compulsion had struck me then. I wanted to know what was on that little piece of paper. I had set the keys and coins down in my lap, then carefully uncrumpled the little white sheet. The first thing I noticed was that it was a receipt. The second: it was a receipt for an engagement ring. An engagement ring. Alec had bought an engagement ring two days ago.

“When were you going to ask me?” I whispered, staring at a picture of him on my phone. “When?”

 

 


	4. The Story of a Fallen Soldier

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been in the demon realm now, there was really no way to tell time between the darkness of the cave and my unconsciousness. When I’d first woken up again I’d discovered that my leg was badly infected, pus seeping out torn flesh. I’d scrawled more runes with my blood around the edges before bandaging it with what was in the medical kit I had found in the bag. There wasn’t much other than bandages in the kit though, and even those were few. After that I passed out again, making myself stay awake was basically impossible; I was far to sick. It worried me, but there didn’t seem to be anything I could do about it.

I’d just woken up again and I was trying to figure out what to do next as I re-lit the fire. Part of me wanted to look through the journal from the pack to see if maybe the man had written stuff while he was trapped here. Maybe there would be something helpful. The rest of me didn’t want to invade his privacy though.

“I’ll just look through the last few pages. If he wrote something I can use, it would be there.” I said to myself, more to hear some sound other then the crackling of the fire than an actual need to talk aloud.

Pulling the journal out I flipped carefully until I found one of the last pages and skimmed over it. Deciding that it was in fact about had happened to him down here I flipped to what seemed to be the beginning of his ordeal here.

 

_December 5th,_

_I think it’s December fifth anyhow. It’s pretty hard to be sure of the dates during war. I’m not sure what happened, honestly. Jacobs, Donnelly and Me were out on night patrol when we were attacked. At first I thought it was a wild animal, maybe a dog. But then I heard the other two screaming that they couldn’t see what was attacking. I shouted at them that it was right there and tried to shoot it, but they still kept shouting that they couldn’t see it. Then I realized that it’s edges were shimmering, like those things covered in…what did Dad call them? glamours. Or something like that. Things from the shadow world that people in our family could see but most people couldn’t. I’d panicked then. I knew that creatures like this couldn’t be killed with guns. I think that hesitation is what caused this. I hesitated and the thing grabbed me. I remember the sensation of being crushed after that, but the sensation was everywhere, not just where the arms of the thing had grabbed me. Then I passed out. When I woke up, I was in this cave. I’m afraid to leave now. Where are Jacobs and Donnelly? Where am I?_

_-David Tanner_

_December…Somethingth,_

_I’m lucky enough that my pack seems to have come with me. I’ve got my tent, my sleeping bag, a change of clothes, a few rations, a meager medical kit, a knife and my lighter. And this journal. I was able to scramble around in the dark until I found some sticks that I wrapped in some socks to use as a torch. I used its light to make a full fire. The wood burns weird, it gives off a greenish flame and it throws sparks sometimes. There’s a little spring about a hundred yards deeper into the cave, I drank a little of the water and it seems safe enough. I haven’t gotten sick yet, and I think it’s been at least a day._

_I made the mistake of trying to leave the cave earlier today. But the farther I went, the harder the air was to breath. It was like the gas the Nazis use or something. It burned my lungs and my eyes so much I had to turn back. I saw light though, so I must’ve been near a way out. I’m going to try again tomorrow, maybe the air will be clearer._

_-David Tanner_

_December,_

_I tried to leave again this morning, but the air seems like it’s still filled with gas. I came back to my camp and soaked one of my shirts in water from the spring, tying it around my face. I then made another attempt to leave. The shirt helped enough that I made it out. I’m not in the human world anymore, that I’m sure of now. I think I’m in the place my dad used to tell me stories about, the demon realm. Dad used to work for the shadowhunters, the people that killed the demons when they came to the human world. But then the laws the shadowhunters followed changed or something and they stopped using “mundane” servants who had the ability to see the same things as them. My Dad still knew a lot about it though, and he’d talk about it sometimes when I was little. He’d tell me about the shining weapons the shadowhunters had, the one’s they named after angels. Dad only mentioned the demon realm a few times, all he’d told me was that it was the place where the demons came from, it was entirely separate from our world, and if you went there you never came back._

_But anyways, the things I saw when I left can’t be part of our world. I don’t know much about animals in other places, but I doubt there’s anywhere in the world with what appear to be herds of animals with twenty legs and glistening armor like you see on beetles. Those were the first ones I saw, they were traveling in a huge group over what looked like an cracked and dried lake bed the stretched as far as I could see._

_So far I’ve tried not to think of my wife and little girl. I didn’t want to think that I wouldn’t see them again. But now…now I know I won’t. If I’m really in the demon realm, I’ll never get to see my little girl turn one or two or three. I’ll never get to see her start school, or go on her first date, or threaten her first date with death if he doesn’t bring her home before ten. I’ll never get to celebrate my first anniversary with my wife, or finally take her on our honeymoon, or help her go back to school._

_Maybe I’m not in the demon realm though. Maybe I will make it home some how. Maybe._

_-David Tanner_

 

Tanner. That name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I guess it didn’t really mater though, at least not right now. There were still several entries left, but I was getting so drowsy now that I couldn’t focus on the words. Setting the book down I lay back, resting my head on the pack. I felt sorry for David. To be taken away from the people you loved like that, I knew how hard that was. Well, not being taken from a daughter, but at least from someone you’d planned to spend the rest of your life with.

Magnus.

I slid my hand into the pocket of my jacket, feeling around for the cool metal of the ring I had bought. I pulled it out and examined the little silver loop in the flickering light. It was a simple silver ring, with a ring of blue gemstone embedded on the outside. It was an engagement ring I bought two days before all of this. I’d almost asked him at the restaurant that night, but there were to many people and I’d chickened out, deciding to wait until we got home to the flat. But we’d never gotten home. And now, I wasn’t sure I ever would.


	5. Despiration

“Magnus, open the door.” Jace’s voice sounded through my intercom.

I’d been ignoring him and his incessant buzzing for a good ten minutes now, hoping he would go away. He wasn’t exactly a patient guy. After another ten minutes though I gave up and let him in, I was sick of listening to the buzzer.

“What?” I growled.

“You haven’t answered your phone.” He responded, trying to shimmy past me and into my apartment.

I put my arm up to block him, “Yeah, I haven’t exactly been in the mood for talking. In case you haven’t realized, I had to witness my boyfriend get sucked into the demon realm a week ago.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I had to watch my brother get sucked into the demon realm a week ago. Let me in.”

I glared down at him for a few moments, and he glared right back. Eventually I gave in and let him into the flat. He obviously wasn’t going to go away.

“What do you want, Jace?” I leaned moodily against a wall, watching him as he moved to look out the window.

“You haven’t given up? Have you?” He asked after several moments.

“No…I know I should’ve. I know there’s no way he could survive going to the demon realm. No one ever has. And that’s not even counting the fact that he was seriously injured. But it’s rather hard to give up on someone you’d planned to give you your immortality for so you could grow old with them.”

“You were going to give up your immortality to be with him?” Jace turned, his eyebrows raised.

“Don’t sound so shocked. I do love him, Jace. Really, really love him. He is my one and only, as horribly cliche as that sounds. Now could you tell me why you’re here? I’m not exactly in the mood for company.”

“What if he could survive though, Magnus? What if…what if he’s down there right now, still alive?”

“You think I haven’t thought about that?” I nearly shouted, causing him to step back a little at the sudden almost outburst. “You think I haven’t spent every damn night thinking about him down there, suffering and in pain? That’s all I can fucking think about! And there’s nothing any of us can do about it. Don’t think I haven’t spent every day pouring over spell book after spell book to try and find a way to bring him back, Jace! I’ve looked through everything there is, and there’s no way to do it.”

“We couldn’t…couldn’t try and summon him like we would a demon or something?” Jace looked desperate.

I let out a short, bitter laugh. “I know Alec was the only one of you to pay attention when you were learning about these things, but are you really that stupid? Every shadowhunter gets told about what happened to the last guy that got sucked into the demon realm that they tried to summon back. All they got was his ripped off arm.”

“But what if,”

“No, Jace. No ‘what if.’ He. Is. Gone.” My voice broke at the end and I felt my eyes begin to brim with tears. “He’s gone. I’m sorry.”

We were both quiet for awhile after that, not sure what to do or say now.

“Our parents…our parents had him declared dead this morning.” Jace said softly. “The funeral is tomorrow, in Idris. Please come.”


	6. A Plan

_I have no idea what the date is now._

_I once read that, if kept away from natural light, a human will start functioning on a schedule entirely different from a twenty four hour one. I thought that sounded silly at first, but now I feel like it’s probably true. I can tell I stay awake longer here, I don’t know how but I can just feel it. Unless I go outside, then I get sick and retch for the rest of the “day”. I don’t have much choice though, since I seem to have scavenged all of the sticks scattered around my cave. I figured out that if I coat a shirt in the slimy muck on the rocks near the spring I can spend what feels like an hour outside the cave without passing out. There’s something scarily fascinating about going outside, about watching the demons. They behave like animals in our realm, some travel in herds, some are loaners, some hunt others. I think Mary would love to watch them, she was always so fascinated by animals. She wanted to study biology ever since she was a little girl. I had promised to help her go to school once I got home. I’d promised to do a lot of things when I got home. I was going to take my mother to see Shakespeare at the most famous theater in London. I was going to visit my childhood friend Howard in New York. I was going to take my little girl to get her picture taken at a fancy studio. I hope Mary takes her anyways, we need some good pictures of her. And maybe she’d take my mother to the theater for me to, I’d told her in a letter that I was planning the trip._

_I’ve started to wonder why the demons don’t come into this cave, because as far as I can tell there’s nothing that would keep them out. None of those runes my father showed me decorating the entrance, and so far nothing in the cave has proved deadly to me. Maybe it’s the fact that the air is clear here? Maybe clean air is poison to them somehow. But how do they survive so long in our realm if that is the case? It must be that there’s something I can’t see keeping them out. A smell maybe, of a long gone demon that had marked out this place as its territory._

_-David Tanner_

I set the journal aside, pressing my hands to my temples. They were pounding and I could tell I had a fever. I’d tried taking some of the medicines in the medical kit from David’s bag, but they didn’t seem to have an effect. Either they were to old, or I was to sick from the infection in my leg. Both were equally likely. I was terrified to go to sleep now, but I could never stop myself from passing out. Every time I woke up I reached into my pocket and clutched at the smooth silver ring, trying to pretend it would save me somehow. It helped a little, holding onto something that had almost belonged to Magnus.

I missed him so much. Not being able to turn to him every time I woke up screaming or whimpering in this hell hole was the hardest part of this. You never realize how much you need someone until they aren’t there to chase away the bad dreams. But this wasn’t a dream. I wasn’t dreaming that I was in the demon realm. I wasn’t dreaming that I was slowly dying of an infection in my leg. I wasn’t dreaming that I was never going to make it home. If I wasn’t so sick maybe I’d stand a chance of getting out alive, I’d already thought of several ways to try, but I could hardly even walk anymore. Just getting wood for the fire from five feet away took more energy then I had.

I still had enough energy to be concerned about the things I’d noticed down here though. Like my witchlight, it barely functioned anymore. Just a dim flickering whenever I held it in my hand. My one serf blade was the same and the blade had started to flake away. The tips of my arrows were flaking away as well, some had already crumbled completely. Anything angelic was being eaten away, myself included. Or maybe it was just the infection that made me feel that way. I didn’t really know.

Picking up the journal again I read the next entry by the greenish light of the fire. If I read, I stayed awake. If I stayed awake, I didn’t wake up crying from dreams that I’d made it home.

_Day after yesterday,_

_It’s weird, I have no appetite down here. I’ve only eaten about half my rations in what feels like at least a week and a half. Possibly I’m very off in my estimation of how long I’ve been here, or possibly there’s something about this place that is taking away my appetite. Either way, I think I may have figured out a way to get home. When I went out today I saw something strange, a heard of demons was milling around about half a kilometer away from my position when suddenly a greenish hue started to surround one off to the side of the main group. The rest scattered, and the one caught in the hue was sucked away into ball of crackling green light. Then, in it’s place, a dead goat appeared. I believe it must’ve been a dark spell done by a warlock to summon a demon. I think that if I manage to somehow grab hold of a demon when it’s summoned, then maybe I can hitch a ride home. Not that I like the idea of showing up in the lair of a warlock, but I’m still willing to try. First though, I need to figure out a way to get close enough to the demon in time to grab hold of it. Figuring out a way to not get killed by the demon is also important. I figure I’ve got ten seconds at least from when I see the hue to when the demon gets pulled out of this realm. If I can grab hold of it in those ten seconds, maybe I can make it home._

_-David Tanner_

_Today._

_I’m going to try it. What do I have to lose? But, before I go, I want to say goodbye. I know there’s probably no point, no one is ever going to see this. But I wouldn’t feel right not saying goodbye to my little girl, to my wife, to my mother. I love you all so much. Elizabeth, you are the light of my world. We didn’t plan you, but that doesn’t change the fact that you make me happier than any father in the whole world could ever be. I know you’ll grow up to be a strong, amazing woman just like your mother. Make sure you listen to her, even when you think she’s wrong she’s probably right. And Mary, my dear Mary. Do you remember that first date, how your father threatened to kill me if I didn’t get you home on time? Make sure he’s there to do the same thing for Elizabeth’s first date. And please, be happy. If you find a man you love, love him with all you have. And mom, I’m so sorry I couldn’t take you to the theater like I’d promised. I know you’d wanted to go there since you were a little girl. And thank you, for always being there for me. You were a wonderful mother, the best I could ever ask for. I love you all, and I hope to see you again soon._

_-David Tanner_

_Today, again._

_I tried it. I failed. I never made it to the demon. Another one got to me first. It bit me. I made it back to the cave. Now I can barely move. I’m sorry, Mary. I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I’m sorry, Mom. I love you all, but I won’t be making it home after all._

_-David Tanner_

 

I laid the journal down on my lap, staring into the fire. Could it work? Could I get home by hanging onto a demon? David hadn’t made it, but he didn’t know to fight demons either. Maybe I would fair better, I knew how to hunt them and I had a bow and arrows with me. I’d need to make new arrow heads, but I figured I could scavenge something that would work. But I also needed energy, something I didn’t have much of right now and something that was a lot harder to come by than arrow heads. Then again, like David had said, what did I have to lose? My choices were either to give up and confirm the fact that I would never see my family again, or to at least try and make it home. Even if it killed me…at least they’d have a body to mourn over.

Reaching back I pulled out all of the food rations that were left, it was all food that couldn’t spoil. I forgot what the mundane term was for them, “m” something I think. I’d only eaten one so far, partly because they tasted terrible and partly because I just wasn’t hungry. It was a lot harder to convince yourself you needed to eat when all the food tasted like shit. But I needed the energy now, so I carefully unpackaged the food and spread it out into three piles. I ate all of one right then, and put the other two aside for later. I was hoping the food would give me just enough energy to do what I needed to. I was also hoping it wouldn’t come back up because of how sick it was, but I tried not to think about that to much.

After a few minutes of letting everything settle I figured I wasn’t going to bring the food back up and I crawled carefully to the cave wall. There were sharp pebbles scattered along the base of the wall, so sharp that they easily cut into the soles of my boots and shredded my jeans. Perfect for arrow heads. I gathered a handful that were already around the right size and brought them back to the camp site. Carefully I shaped them as best I could using David’s knife, then bound them to the shafts of my arrows using strips of cloth. They weren’t anything that could kill most demons, or anything, honestly, but they could slow them down at the very least. And that was all I needed.


	7. Raising Hell

“Come oooooon, Leon. Let’s do it.” Jess giggled next to me.

“That’s not what you call me tonight, darling.” I pinned her playfully against the wall, sliding a hand loosely around her throat. She looked gorgeous tonight, my favorite spiked collar adorned her neck and she’d painted her lips black with just a hint of red on the inner edges. Her skin had been paled to perfection and nearly glowed against the black of her laced corset.

“Yes, your highness.” She grinned, sliding her fingers under my fishnet top and raking them down my back. I growled and leaned forward, nipping at her neck. She giggled again and pushed me off, “Not now, we need to do the spell! It’s almost midnight!”

“As you command, my darling.” I moved away and turned, hearing her soft footsteps following me deeper into the warehouse.

We came to the room I’d set up before she arrived. There was a pattern of interlocking circles and stars in the center of the room, adorned with symbols I’d gotten from a book a guy had traded me for some meth. The outermost circle was ringed in candles, all puddling their hot wax onto the floor. Jess let out a breathy sigh at the sight of it,

“It’s even cooler than you said it would be.”

“I added some things.” I smiled, “Now then, we’re still missing an ingredient.” I grinned, pulling out a packet filled with white powder.

Jess jumped and giggled happily, clapping her hands like a little girl. I poured the powder out onto an old table I’d dragged in off the street and used my school ID card to cut it into two piles. Jess ran over and leaned down, snorting up the whole pile on the left in one go. That was my girl. I leaned down and took mine in a couple goes, tilting my head back and grinning as I felt it sing through my senses.

“It’s time.”

“What do I do, baby?” Jess smiled. She looked ravishing, standing there more than willing to do my bidding. I was sure that, in that moment, I could make her do anything I wanted. Anything at all. And I loved it.

“Dance around the edge.” I instructed, stepping to the center. She did as told as I started to chant, working the strange words from the book past my lips.

I could feel the effect almost instantly, the build up of energy around me. It felt like I was standing in the middle of a huge lightning storm but not getting struck. My arms raised up from my sides of their own accord, my eyes sliding shut as my voice got louder.

Then Jess screamed. A scream of terror that rung through the cobwebbed building. I snapped my eyes open, my chanting cut short. Right in front of me was the most terrifying thing I’d ever seen, and I wasn’t even sure what it was. It was as tall as I was, with hundreds of twitching legs and a pile of glistening eyes that shifted around as if they weren’t attached to anything. The thing was covered in a glistening black shell, and smelled like it had died a year ago.

Lying next to it on the ground was a man, but I didn’t take the time to really look at him before I turned and sprinted away. Jess could fend for herself.

 

———————————————————————————————

 

I slammed into the ground, crying out as I felt my wrist snap on impact. I knew I didn’t have time to focus on it, not when I could still feel the presence of the demon behind me, so without thinking I rolled to my feet, relying on adrenalin to carry me through the pain ans I scrambled away. Turning I saw that the demon wasn’t chasing me but had gone in a different direction after a girl with long blond hair and purple streaks. The shadowhunter in me said I should try and protect her, she was a human girl from the look of it. But I knew I didn’t stand a chance against the demon right now, not when I could barely walk let alone fight. So I kept hobbling until I made it out of the building and into an alley way.

“New York. I made it back to New York.” I almost cried when I saw the familiar street glowing softly maybe twenty feet in front of me. I was only a couple blocks from Magnus’s flat. A couple blocks from home. I could make it back, I could see Magnus again. I could curl up in bed with him, make breakfast with him, marry him. I could see Jace and Izzy and Clary and everyone else. We could all go to Taki’s and then run around the city chasing demons like we always did. Things could be normal. I just had to make it to Magnus’s flat.

I stumbled forward, using the wall for support as much as I could, which wasn’t much due to the piles of trash shoved up against the walls. Before I could make out of the alley way and into the street I crumpled into a heap, coming to the delayed realization that I could barely breath. For a moment I was terrified that I was still in the demon realm, that that was why the air was burning my lungs. But no, I was really back in New York. This wasn’t a dream, I could feel the throb of my injuries, the weight of David’s journal thumping against my side, could feel the asphalt grating into my palms. Maybe it was the infection raging in my body that made it hard to breath, or an injury I didn’t realize I had. It didn’t matter though, I was making it home. I was making it back to Magnus. I couldn’t get this close only to fail.

Taking a few raspy breaths as deeply as I could manage I struggled back to my feet. I had to make it to Magnus. Even if I died as soon as I saw him, I had to see him one more time. I had to say goodbye. To say I loved him.

After a block I realized that I would probably be crying in pain if it weren’t for the fact I was so dehydrated that I couldn’t manage it. The more I forced myself to walk the harder it got to breath, to the point I had to stop every few steps. But I would make it. I had to make it, I kept telling myself. Magnus was so close. So close. By the time I reached Magnus’s stoop I just fell forward, managing to drag myself to the buzzer. I reached up, pushing it in again and again without response. I tried to cry out his name, but I didn’t have enough air in my lungs. And I could feel the heaviness of unconsciousness drifting over me now, feel it tugging me down until finally my vision faded completely. I’d been so close. So close.


	8. A Funeral

I hated funerals. Especially the word. What was so “fun” about afuneral? You were there to say goodbye to someone who never should’ve died. Someone you were meant to spend the rest of your life with. Someone who had died when you could’ve prevented it. Should have prevented it.

Angrily I kicked a can across the street, shoving my hands deeper into my pockets. I’d left Idris hours ago. Alec’s service had been small, only his siblings, parents and a small handful of relatives. They’d wanted it that way, they couldn’t bear the condolences of everyone they knew all at once. Not when they didn’t even have a body to grieve over.

I hadn’t gone straight home though, after leaving the shadowhunter homeland. It was to hard to imagine going back home after the finality of Alec’s funeral. Hard to imagine that I wouldn’t walk in to find him asleep on the couch, a book open across his chest and The Chairmen draped across his legs. Hard to imagine that I wasn’t going to be able to roll over and pull him close to me in the mornings anymore. So I’d gotten to the end of my block and turned around, walking back into the city.

Eventually I found myself on the end of my street once more, just as it started to rain. I still didn’t want to go in, but there was an umbrella just inside the door. I didn’t have the energy to summon it, so I gave in and walked towards my stoop, intending to only get the umbrella.

I almost didn’t see him there, the homeless man passed out beneath the buzzer. Not that I was very surprised to find him. My building had the kind of design for the stoop that attracted the homeless like flies, it went back a good five feet and was completely covered. I found a homeless person trying to sleep there at least once a week. If I hadn’t felt so sorry for them I would’ve put up a spell to stop it. Instead I always put a minor controlling spell on them that made them walk a couple blocks to nearest shelter. Said spell, however, only worked if they were awake.

Sighing I walked up the three steps and knelt down, “Come on, buddy. Time to get up.” I gently shook his shoulder, trying to rouse him. It didn’t have any effect though, and I was starting to wonder if the guy was even alive. It would be just my luck, on today of all days, to find a dead guy on my stoop. Leaning forward a little more I brushed aside his tangled hair and felt for a pulse, a pulse that could just barely be felt beneath the burning skin. This guy was sick, very sick. And I was very not in the mood to help a sick, homeless mundane who had decided to come die at my front door.

“Mmm,” He mumbled when I shook his shoulder again, gently.

“Come on, time to get up. There’s an ER a couple blocks over.”

The mans’ eyes fluttered open slightly and I nearly choked when my name left his cracked lips just as I caught site of the stunning dark blue that I loved so much.

“Oh my god, Alec.”

I wanted to rip myself apart for not realizing it was him the second I saw him. Instead of ripping myself apart, however, I chose to rip off my jacket and carefully tuck it around him, gently pulling him into my arms. I kicked my door open and carried him upstairs, kicking open the door to my apartment as well. I took him straight to the kitchen and softly laid him down on the table. This was the only place I’d have enough room to work on him.

“Stay with me, baby, stay with me.” I kept saying over and over as I took a knife from my drawer to his tattered clothes. I threw them all to the floor, then carefully went to work on the dirty bandage around his left thigh. I gagged on the smell coming from the wound, it was severely infected. Alec had done his best to heal it, there were runes scrawled in blood around the outer edges, but it didn’t look like it had done much. I stepped away and moved to my pantry, shoving cans to the floor as I pried open the hidden cabinet where I kept my stock of potions. Magic could heal a cut, but only potions could take care of an infection this bad.

Setting an armful of potions on the counter I grabbed a milky colored one and came back to Alec. I kissed his forehead and apologized, I knew this was going to hurt like hell, and poured it all into the wound. Alec whimpered and shifted slightly, stopping only when I gently stroked his forehead and reassured him that he was going to be okay. I was a little concerned by how little reaction he had to the potion being poured into the wound, most people screamed no matter how far they were gone, but I could feel his fever going down under my fingers so I didn’t focus on his lack of response to long.

As it worked I looked over the rest of his body, seeing what other injuries he had. His right wrist was broken, as were two ribs on on his right side. And his lungs, they were scared to the point I didn’t understand how he was still breathing. I went back to the potions on the counter and selected a completely clear one. Turning back I leaned down to whisper in Alec’s ear,

“You’re not going to be able to breath for a minute, Baby, but you have to trust me that everything is going to be okay. I need to do this so that I can heal your lungs.” I kissed his temple and stood straight again. I hovered my right hand a few inches above his throat, and poured a generous amount of the potion into his mouth with my other. Dropping the vial to the table I guided the liquid down his throat and into his lungs, trying to ignore the fact that I could feel him choking underneath me. When I was satisfied that I had healed enough of the damage for him not to be in danger of asphyxiation I dissolved what was left of the potion.

After that I went to auto-pilot. I took care of his wrist and ribs, then started to work on his leg. The infection was nearly gone, but it had eaten away so much tissue that it took much longer to heal it than I’d expected.

Finally I succeeded in knitting the last edges together. There was a nasty scar there, but he wasn’t in danger of losing his leg any more. I grabbed some bandages from above the microwave and soaked them in a potion that would help continue to heal any damage that was left, wrapping the wound after gently scrubbing away any dirt and blood on his leg to prevent further infection. As soon as a dry bandage was secured around his thigh I collapsed into a chair next to him, grabbing hold of his hand.

“Alec, baby, can you hear me?” I asked softly, using my free hand to stroke his forehead. I knew he needed to rest, but I desperately wanted to see him open his eyes one more time. After a little coaxing I got just that. He looked at me for a just a moment, and then his eyes slipped shut again. Kissing his forehead I let myself finally cry. He was back. He was back. Somehow he’d made it home. I didn’t even care how he’d done it right now, just that he had and that he was going to be okay.

After a few minutes I stood up again, taking a few deep breaths to steady myself. Grabbing a few towels from under the sink I finished cleaning him up, healing the few other cuts and bruises I found as I went. As minor as the injuries were, I couldn’t make myself not fix them. Not now, not when I’d already failed him by letting this happen in the first place. I even took the time to carefully work the knots out of his hair before I gently slid a pair of clean boxers onto him and carried him to our room. I laid him on the bed, on top of the comforter so that it would be softer. Grabbing another blanket from the closet I tucked it around him to keep him warm.

I stared at him for awhile, still not really believing he was here. I felt my eyelids drooping from the exhaustion of using so much magic, but I wouldn’t let myself fall asleep. How could I not be awake in case he needed me? And he would need me, I was sure of that. And he’d need his family to. His family. Damn. I hadn’t told them yet.

Looking around I found my phone and dialed Jace’s number.

“I’m not exactly up to talking right now, Magnus.” Jace answered. I heard a muffled “Who is it?” from Clary in the background, and the muffled reply of my name from Jace.

“Alec made it home.” How else was I supposed to explain it?

The line was silent for a moment, “What do you mean ‘Alec made it home’?”

“He made it back, Jace. I don’t know how, but he did. I found him on my stoop, unconscious, two hours ago. He was hurt bad and suffering from a terrible infection.”

“Dear Angel, please tell me he’s going to be okay?!” I could hear him scrambling around and a mumbled order to Clary to call Isabelle.

“…physically he’ll be fine. He’s going to need to be on bed rest for awhile, but I’ve healed all his injuries and taken care of the infection.” We were both silent. Physically, he’d be just fine. Mentally? How could we tell when we had no idea what he’d gone through?

“I’ll be there in five.”

“But Clary’s place is thirty minutes aw-” The line clicked as Jace hung up and I just sighed, tossing the phone to the floor.

Five minutes later I heard his light footed tread coming down the hall before he burst in. As soon as he breached the doorway he just stopped, staring down at Alec. Admittedly, he still didn’t look to good. He was still extremely pale, which for him meant he looked nearly transparent compared to his normally pale complexion, and there was still a slight greenish tinge to his skin from the infection. But compared to what he looked like when I’d found him, he was the picture of health.

“Dear Angel…” Jace whispered, “How?”

“I don’t know.” I murmured, still stroking Alec’s forehead. “And I don’t honestly care.”

Jace just stood in the doorway for awhile longer, staring at his brother, before he spoke up again, “You look terrible, Magnus. You should rest.”

“Gee, thanks.” I grumbled.

“I’m not trying to be mean, Magnus. You really don’t look good, you look like you’re about to collapse.” Jace retorted.

“I’m fine. Besides…Alec needs me.”

“Exactly,” Jace responded, stepping a little farther into the room. “He needs you. And you won’t be able to be there for him if you’re so exhausted you can’t move. Just lie down and rest, please? I’ll stay up with him, and I promise I’ll wake you if his condition changes at all.”

I was silent for a moment, staring down at Alec. Jace was right, I needed rest, but…

“No, you’ll wake me up every hour so I can check him myself.” I told Jace.

“Every two hours.”

“Hour and a half.”

“Fine.” Jace gave in after a moment of silence.

I nodded my thanks and carefully crawled into bed with Alec, keeping one of my hands wrapped in his as I rested my forehead against his skin. I was afraid to touch him more than that, I didn’t want to hurt him. I felt my consciousness slipping immediately, and the last thing I was aware of was Jace sitting down where I had been and taking Alec’s other hand gently in his.


	9. Embrace

“Good morning, Beautiful.”

The breath the words were carried on ghosted across the back of my neck as Magnus nuzzled closer, his arm wrapped securely around my waist. This was exactly how we’d woken up every day for the past two weeks, and I was completely sure that I would never get tired of it.

“Good morning.” I smiled and rolled over in his arms so that I was facing him, planting a gentle kiss on his lips. He let out a sleepy but pleased hum as he nuzzled closer, tangling our legs together as well.

“How are you feeling?” He asked, cracking his eyes open enough so that he could watch my face for any signs of lying. He knew how I was when it came to being injured.

“Pretty good.” I told him honestly, “My leg’s kind of stiff and a little sore, but I’m sure a hot shower will fix it.”

“Can you breath okay?” He pressed, one of his hands gently stroking down my spine.

“Yeah.” I purposely took a deep breath to show him that I was being honest. When I’d first woken up, apparently two days after I’d made it back, I could still barely catch my breath. It was better than it had been when I’d first gotten back, but I still had to struggle for air and I could hardly talk at all. Magnus had tried to convince me that it would be good to get out of New York, rent a cabin somewhere where the air was cleaner and easier to breath. But I’d refused, scribbling out on scraps of paper that I was not, under any circumstances, going anywhere other than home. Magnus had instantly caved and put spells on the whole apartment that would clean the air, and started me on some kind of medication he said would help. And it had helped. I could breath so much better now, though I could still feel myself struggling a little at times.

“Good.” Magnus kissed my forehead and I smiled slightly. “Alec…”

“What?” I nuzzled my way to his collar bone, snuggling my head under his.

He made a small, pleased sound as his hand moved to stroke my hair, “Jace called. The Silent Brothers are getting impatient…”

I sighed at this, the Silent Brothers had been attempting to come and talk to me every day since I’d made it back. It was only Magnus’s insistence that I wasn’t well enough to handle it and Jace’s sheer stubbornness that had kept them at bay.

“I may as well talk to them.” I replied after a moment.

“Alec, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I will eventually, I’d rather just get it over with.” I responded.

“Are you sure? We can put it off another day or two…” I could hear the worry in his voice.

“No, I just want to get it over with. Besides, I’ll have my fiance with me.” I pulled back a little and smiled at him. The same huge grin that always broke out whenever I mentioned our engagement had spread across his face. It was beautiful.

I had asked Magnus almost as soon as I woke up, with a little help from Jace. Well, all Jace had done was dig through the scraps of what was left of my old clothes to find the ring for me. Magnus had cried and held me for nearly an hour, saying “Yes” and “I love you so much” over and over again. It had felt amazing, not that he was crying (even though they were tears of joy), but just that he was there and that he was holding me and that he loved me enough to say yes.

“Alright. If you’re okay taking a shower on your own, I’ll give Jace a call and tell him to bring them over in a couple hours. That should give enough time for a shower, breakfast and a quick check-up.”

“I’ll be fine.” I kissed his nose, matching the grin that spread on his face at the action. “I would appreciate it if you got me some clothes out of the closet and put them in the bathroom though.”

“I can do that.” Magnus replied, giving me one last kiss before getting out of bed and going to find me something to wear. I watched him go for a moment before rolling over and up into a sitting position.

I stretched, my hands grasped over my head, and sighed contently when my back popped. Grabbing my crutches I stood on my good leg and walked to the bathroom. Immediately I started the water to give it time to warm up, then grabbed a fresh towel out from under the sink. Setting the crutches against the counter I hopped the few steps to the shower and sat down on the large back lip of the tub that had been designed to function as a seat. I’d always told Magnus the thing was weird, what was the point of it if you could just stand and take a shower? But I was grateful for it now.

Leaning my head back I let the warm water run over me. I was so lost in how good it felt that I didn’t even notice Magnus step into the shower with me until I suddenly couldn’t feel the spray anymore.

“I take it from the content and slightly dazed look on your face that the hot water is helping?” He smiled.

“Yes, now stop blocking it.” I grinned, pulling him down to sit next to me.

“And you said this chair was silly.”

“Hush.” I kissed him to shut him up, leaning forward to make this one a little deeper than the previous one’s of the morning. He responded in turn, wrapping his arms around me.

After a few minutes we pulled apart and I rested my head on his chest. We stayed like that for awhile, in a comfortable silence until we felt the hot water beginning to wane. Magnus leaned forward and shut it off, jumping out of the tub and grabbing my towel before I could even swing my legs over the edge.

“You’re spoiling me.” I said playfully.

“You deserve to be spoiled.” He responded, wrapping the towel around my shoulders. “And more.”

 

An hour later and we were sitting in Magnus’s den, Magnus was on my left, both his hands wrapped around one of mine and Jace was on my right, arms crossed and a menacing stare on his face directed at the two hooded figures across from us. The Silent Brothers had tried to insist that they talk to me alone, I’d felt almost sorry for them at the reaction it had provoked from Jace and Magnus. Needless to say, Jace and Magnus had won that argument. So now we were sitting and waiting because I didn’t have the faintest idea how to start.

“From the beginning.” Brother Donovan provided in response to my thought. “What exactly happened that night?”

I glanced sideways at Magnus, wondering if they’d let him hear the question as well. He gave a small nod and gently squeezed my hand. Smiling at him just a little I took a deep breath and started,

“I don’t remember to many specific details of what exactly happened the night I disappeared. I remember the demons coming up out of the ground, and blurry snapshots of the fight. When I realized the demon had impaled me I remember thinking I should pull away, but not having time to do it. The next thing I remember is the sensation of going through a portal, but it was more intense than that. It felt like I was being crushed, I couldn’t breath at all, and it felt like it lasted a long time though I don’t know how long. After that I remember, I guess waking up is the best way to put it, on cracked dirt. The demon was gone, or at least I didn’t see it anywhere that I can remember. After a minute I realized that I couldn’t breath, and it wasn’t just because of going through the portal or whatever it was. There was something in the air.”

“Magnus,” The other Silent Brother cut in, “You told us that Alec’s lungs were severely damaged when you found him?”

“Yes.” Magnus replied, pausing a moment before he continued. “It was similar to damage I’ve seen in people who live in or near demon dens. The demon poison evaporates and leaves a toxic gas in the air that doesn’t disperse for a long time. The gas gets into people’s lungs and causes damage to the lungs ability to transfer oxygen into the blood. Eventually the person will…die because there isn’t enough oxygen getting to their organs. The damage to Alec’s lungs was similar to that, but much worse. Honestly, I have no idea how he survived.”

I gently squeezed Magnus’s hand, we’d be talking about this more later. This was the first time I’d see how much this had bothered him.

He smiled at me and squeezed back before continuing, “I was able to repair most of the damage, and I’m still working on it, but it will take time.”

“Continue, Alexander.”

“When I realized I couldn’t breath I looked around, I guess I was looking for some place to hide. I saw this pile of boulders off in the distance and I just moved towards them.” I continued with the rest of my story, the parts I remembered anyhow. I never mentioned David’s journal though. I didn’t want the Silent Brother’s to take it. It wasn’t their’s to have.

Everyone was silent after I had finished, taking in everything I’d said. Jace and Magnus had heard pieces, but not the whole thing until now.

“So…the demon realm, it wasn’t really that different from here, was it? I mean, it sounds like you were in the equivalent of a desert or something. I wonder if the humanoid demons have cities like ours…” Jace mused.

“Yeah, I’ve wondered the same thing, actually.” I answered, “Honestly, in any other context, I would be extremely fascinated by all of this. I would love to know more about it. But right now I’d just prefer to let it go.”

Jace grinned, “You’ll let it go for now. But a hundred bucks says that a year from now, you’ll be writing a book about it.”

“Who says I’d write a book?” I quirked an eyebrow.

“Because you’re you.” Magnus and Jace answered at the same time, both grinning at each other.

“You read everything you can get your hands on, it’s about time you gave everyone else something to read.” Jace finished.

I just shook my head and smiled. Who knows, maybe I would write about it someday.


	10. Epilogue

“What are we doing again?” Magnus asked as he turned down a small residential street in London.

We’d been here a week, driving around and following various leads to the Tanner family. Finally we’d found them, living on the very edge of the city. Mary was still alive and in her nineties. She lived with her daughter Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s husband Jared, from what we’d learned. Elizabeth’s son lived with them as well, though we hadn’t found his name.

“We’re returning something.” I responded, looking out the window of the car as I searched for the address we’d been given.

“What are we returning?” Magnus prodded, turning down another side street. For someone who had lived in London multiple times, he didn’t seem to have the faintest clue as to how to get where we were going.

I hadn’t told Magnus about the journal, for some reason it just didn’t feel right. I still felt like I’d been invading David’s privacy by reading it a month ago in the demon realm. I didn’t want to invade that privacy any more by telling other people about it.

“Something…something that helped me survive in the demon realm.” I told him. “Wait, there it is!” I almost shouted, grinning as I saw the house. It was a beautiful house, big and set back from the street a fair distance. Three stories were topped with an steep roof containing three equally spaced dormer windows. The American influences were clear, but so were the European.

Magnus parked the car and came around to help me out, handing me the one crutch I still needed to use.

“Not going to tell me more than that?” He inquired as we walked up the gravel driveway.

“Sorry,” I smiled gently, hoping he would understand. He smiled back and nodded, showing that he did.

We walked up the porch steps and Magnus rang the bell while I held my breath, hoping that they were home and that they were the right family. An older woman opened the door, she looked in her sixties, maybe seventies. As soon as I saw her, I knew she was Elizabeth. I wasn’t sure how, but I did.

“Well hello,” She smiled, her accent subtle. “What can I do for you boys?”

“My name is Alexander Lightwood, this is my friend, Magnus Bane.” I choose to introduce Magnus as a friend, since I didn’t want to risk her asking us to leave before I could say what I needed to.

“A Lightwood, hmmm?” She smiled, “And here I was thinking the Clave didn’t bother with Mundanes any more.” She said in a sweetly teasing tone.

“We aren’t here on behalf of the Clave, actually. It’s…personal business. You are Elizabeth Tanner, right?” I answered.

“That I am. Well, was. My name has been Elizabeth Mathews ever since I got married. Why don’t you boys come in and have some tea while we talk?” She moved to the side slightly, welcoming us into her home.

Magnus and I followed her inside and into a beautiful kitchen filled with an eclectic assortment of cook and dining ware. Elizabeth pulled a freshly brewed pot of tea off of the stove and poured a cup for each of us, setting a tall pitcher of milk and some sugar on the table. Magnus instantly grabbed the milk and poured a good dose of it into the tea, swirling the cup slightly before taking a sip.

“You make wonderful tea, Mrs. Mathews.” Magnus smiled.

“Thank you. Now then, what personal business would bring a Lightwood and a Warlock to my door?” Elizabeth asked, sipping her own tea.

“Well, it’s actually about your father, David Tanner.” I said after a moment.

Elizabeth blinked and set her cup back down on the table, “My father died in World War Two. His entire unit was killed, several of their bodies were never found. The Army said that they were killed by a land mine. Though, that was their excuse for most deaths they couldn’t explain.”

“It wasn’t a land mine, it was a demon attack.” I said after a moment.

“And how do you know this?” She asked, staring at me with her eyebrows raised slightly.

“Because of this.” I pulled the journal out of my pocket and set it on the table, the photograph of David and his family resting on top of it.

Elizabeth reached forward with shaky hands and picked up the photo before she darted up, surprisingly quickly for someone her age, and vanished into another room. She was back within moments, a framed photo clutched in her hands. She sat down at the table again, setting the framed photo side by side with the one I’d given her. The photo in the frame was of a man in his formal British military clothes, a proud look on his face. A photo of David.

“Oh my God.” Elizabeth said, one hand hovering over the photos and another in front of her mouth, “It’s, it’s really him. Where did you get this?” Her eyes snapped up to mine, searching for an answer.

“In the demon realm. I was trapped there a month ago. I found shelter in a cave, and inside I found an old camp. There was a tattered tent and a duffel bag. It was your father’s camp. He’d been sucked into the demon realm while he was fighting in the war. I’m not sure how long he survived there, but I read the last few of his journal entries and they…they were the only reason I was able to make it home. What he said in those last few entries, it gave me the strength I needed to find a way home, to find a way back to my family. I wouldn’t have been able to do it if it wasn’t for him.” I finished with a deep breath. I felt Magnus’s hand clutching mine under the table and I looked over to see him staring at me, tears starting to form in the corners of his eyes.

“And you brought it back,” Elizabeth murmured, picking up the journal.

“Yes. I wanted to try and find you, or someone related to you to give it to if I made it back alive. I knew that if I were in your position, I would’ve wanted that closure. That…and I wanted to say thank you. Your father got me through what I went through alive, and I don’t think I would’ve made it out if it wasn’t for the journal. So…thank you. Thank you for having a father who helped me live.”


End file.
